According to officials in the United States, South Korea and Japan, North Korea has fired an unidentified ballistic missile in the early hours of Wednesday, over the Japanese Island Hokkaido, which eventually crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
According to South Korea's military, "the missile was fired eastward from the vicinity of Pyongsong, South Pyongan Province, at dawn today, around 3:17am local time (18:17 GMT) on Wednesday".
North Korean state television, KCNA, said that the missile is the "most powerful Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), which meets the goal of the completion of the rocket weaponry system development set by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)".
The US Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, said the missile went higher than ever before, describing it as a step towards Pyongyang building missiles that can "basically threaten everywhere in the world".
Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera, mentioned that the missile achieved an estimated altitude of around 4,000km and broke up before landing in the country's "exclusive economic zone".
US Department of Defense initial assessment revealed that the type of missile is capable of carrying nuclear warheads and could reach the mainland of the United States. Adding that should Pentagon's first assessment turn out to be correct, it would be the third test of an ICBM by North Korea this year.
Following the launch, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council during which is was discussed that the South is closely monitoring actions coming out of North Korea, that it detects these missile launches quickly and that it is prepared to respond.
US President Donald Trump while reacting to the launch stated that such situation will be handled and that the US stance on North Korea would not change.
Jens Stoltenberg, secretary-general of NATO, condemned the missile launch. "This is a further breach of multiple UN Security Council Resolutions, undermining regional and international security", Stoltenberg said.
